iMac RAM

First off, I'm a recent switcher. My dad offered to buy new computers for the whole family, since we were all in need of a major boost in tech specs. I asked for a Mac, feeling that in Windows, I couldn't get anything done without running in to some annoying little thing that wasn't supposed to be that way (which I'm a stiiiickler about!), and in Linux, I was having fun, but not getting much real-world stuff done. I thought maybe a Mac would help me get stuff done (and if nothing else... I could just install Linux on it). :innocent:

But it's been a month and a week, and I think it's made a good sized dent in my productivity problem. I get the impression that Macs aren't all the zealots crack them up to be (as I expected), but are definitely worth their price. Ya get what you pay for, be it Mac or Windows (Linux kinda doesn't follow the same road, so yeah).

If I've got a question, it'd be this; I've got 256 MB / RAM in this iMac. Would 512 be that much better? I've heard everywhere that maxing out on RAM is the thing to do... but that's kinda lame. I mean, I remember when 64 MB was a lot, and OSes, while heavily beefed up since then, aren't THAT much thicker, I think! I'm looking for an answer beyond, "if you've got the cash, go for it for sure," but more something along the lines of benchmarks.

Also, I just popped the case open on this thing. I see one RAM stick. Is that all 256 MB right there? And what kind of RAM is that, if I were to upgrade? I've got some PC133's layin' around. And while we're under the hood... it's that little black heatsink lookin' thing covering my CPU? And what's that card... thing? It's the other big rectangle in the middle of the board, kind of protruding, implying it's just plugged in to the main board. It's got a wire coming out of it.

I can't speak to the hardware since I don't have an iMac, but I can tell you that you'll notice a big difference in OS X by increasing the RAM to at least 512. 256 is the absolute minimum I would recommend and it will be a little sluggish, especially with multiple apps open. More RAM = Better performance!

I think the Airport card is the PC card on the very bottom, isn't it? What I'm looking at is on the MB. Could that maybe be a PC card adaptor that just kind of wraps its way around to the bottom, where the Airport card is?

And my specs can be found at the left, I believe . It's the cheapest iMac currently available at apple.com;

Wow! Opening the System Profiler brings the whole machine to a crawl! If it helps, it's an iMac 2.1 . SDRAM.... that's what it's telling me I've got. Which one is that? RDRAM is the expensive RAMBUS stuff, right? I've got a P4 somewhere in this house that uses RAMBUS. It's expeeensive! Guess that's kind of irrelevant, though.